Not enough Stoke City fringe men take chance to impress as makeshift attack shows limited hand
Stoke City are out of the FA Cup after a disappointing home defeat to Championship rivals Cardiff on a penalty shoot-out. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium.
Mark Robins sees depth of his squad
Emre Tezgel took the chance to show Mark Robins he had good movement in the final third. He could have made a bigger impression if he’d scored in the opening moments but this was his first proper game in almost six months.
READ MORE: Stoke City player ratings vs Cardiff as fightback after woeful defending in vain
Bosun Lawal showed useful power and athleticism and Ben Pearson took up positions that Stoke’s central midfield has neglected all season, even if the two are clearly building up their match sharpness.
But not enough were able to keep regular starters on their toes or nervous about competition for shirts. Viktor Johansson and Ashley Phillips, for example, are clearly stand out best in class in their positions.
Stoke pay price for dreadful defending
Defending hasn’t necessarily been Stoke’s biggest problem for most of this season and they had picked up four clean sheets in the previous eight games to this.
But there was some foul defending through this tie, particularly in the opening stages as Stoke’s back four struggled to assert themselves, Jack Bonham couldn’t make saves and there was too much space in central midfield.
Mike Pejic, watching in the press box, was getting mad at Stoke’s centre-halves Ben Gibson and Michael Rose letting other players challenge for headers that should have been theirs and, in particular, Lewis Baker not taking enough responsibility off the ball.
Robins said: “You have to consider the way they set up as well. They set up for a game like that, they wanted a game like that and we allowed that to happen. When a team tries to stretch you the way that they did, let's face it, there was one ball down the middle that bounced and we should have dealt with but communication was lacking in that instance and he gets his foot around it to stick it in the back of the net.
"The first goal was a really poor goal to concede as well. The third one, he's just waltzed inside us, it's gone through about six bodies so the goalkeeper can't see it and it's ended up in the corner of the net. Three really poor goals.
"The good thing is that you can put those things right. I think also we've had to work for the goals we've scored. The players that played up front, it's the first time Tez has started under me, and it gives us a look at him and a chance for him to get some minutes under his belt to push his cause.
"There are some really big and tough games coming up in the league and we have to focus on that because that's what we've got left. This week is a really big week for us. I wanted to get through, unfortunately we haven't, but we've got to go and pick some points up in the league."
Extra-time highlighted Robins’ limited hand
Nathan Lowe and Ali Al-Hamadi were cup-tied and Sam Gallagher is still coming back from injury. When Lewis Koumas came off after 90 minutes looking like he’d run his race, Tezgel was pushed out to the left and it was Lawal and Tatsuki Seko who were the most advanced players down the middle.
Robins said: "Yes and then you're hopeful and we still had chances. I say chances, there was one when we went through and Tezgel had gone inside and should have hit it first time. He ended taking it back into a press whereas if he hit it first time he's got more chance of scoring the goal but he squirted it wide for a corner.
"I don't want to be too critical because he's worked his socks off, Emre. There's been some decent play and we got down the side of them quite a lot and the goals we scored were really good, character we showed to get back into the game... all those things are brilliant but, as you mentioned, at the end of the game and how we finished, it's difficult then to go and build attacks. They were out of their feet. Junior and it was Wouter I think as well, they both could have come off with cramp.
"It was a tough afternoon but there was a lot of good football played and a lot of the things we are asking them to do came out in the game. There was some good movement and decent attacking football at times. We still need to do more because it was far from free flowing but it's a lot better than it was, that's for sure."
The sooner that Gallagher and Million Manhoef can come back into the party, the better.
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